1. Field
This disclosure is generally related to optical phase manipulation and in particular to optical phase processing in a scattering medium.
2. Description of Related Art
Optical phase conjugation (OPC) is an optical phenomenon, which typically uses a nonlinear optical interaction to substantially reverse the phase of optical wavefront and the direction of propagation of an arbitrary incident light beam. Therefore, a phase conjugated beam travels in a direction opposite to that of an original beam while retracing the phase of the original beam. Several methods exist for OPC, e.g., static holography, real-time holography, stimulated scattering, four-wave mixing, and six-wave mixing. OPC has found several applications, which include high-resolution imaging, lens-less imaging, laser resonators, pulse compression, high energy laser systems, adaptive optics, crystal fiber-optics, spectroscopy, etc. In certain media, such as in biological tissues, scattering is typically several times stronger than absorption. Scattering presents a hurdle to simple viewing through tissues due to severe distortion of the wavefront of an incident light beam. Therefore, obtaining a view inside or through such media is difficult. Similarly, the scattering phenomenon also prevents concentrating or effective delivery of optical energy at preferred locations within such media. Therefore, systems and methods that can alleviate the above-mentioned ill effects of light scattering are desirable in a number of industrial, defense, and healthcare applications.